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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/25539334">I Promise.</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ever_After_AAA/pseuds/Ever_After_AAA'>Ever_After_AAA</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch (Video Game)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Found Family, Gen, Kinda, Team Bonding</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-07-27</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-07-27</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-05 09:28:06</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>914</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/25539334</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ever_After_AAA/pseuds/Ever_After_AAA</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Esther and Swaine hate each other. She promised to hate him. She doesn't keep it.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Jairo | Swaine &amp; Maru | Esther</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>10</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>I Promise.</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“I hate you.”<br/>
<br/>
She hated him. He spoke horribly and dressed horribly and acted horribly. He was rude and didn't explain why he was coming along and he didn't explain why he acted like he did and he didn't explain why he knew the great sage. He didn't explain anything and she was sick of it. She was sick of him. Oliver didn't agree with her, having another person would help them and drippy even liked the guy but Esther hated him. So much. He couldn't do anything to make her like him. Anything. Cross her heart and hope to die.<br/>
<br/>
“Not everyone gets what they want.”<br/>
<br/>
She was stuck up. She was a brat and Swaine didn’t like her. She hated him, she’d even told him so and it hurt but it wasn’t anything he didn’t already know. He’d dislike her more if she tried to hide it, if she snuck her hate around the coy smiles and disapproving glances of his childhood. If she tried to make people think she liked him, if she tried to make people think that she was the only person able to truly tolerate him. She promised to hate him. With her around, Swaine even thinks Oliver and Drippy actually like him. Esther… reminds him of someone.<br/>
<br/>
“Get back here!”<br/>
<br/>
Just who does he think he is? Running off and leaving them, for goodness sake. He’d promised to help them, didn’t he? The nerve! He just wanted to get to Hamlin, she knew it. He just wanted a lift and left them when he got what he wanted. He's despicable and Esther really, really hates him.<br/>
<br/>
“Ahhhhh, the Royal Procession! Lovely, isn’t it?”<br/>
<br/>
She's angry. He can see it. But he's too worried to care. Something isn't right. The guards have horrible, inefficient outfits and Hamlin is known for its efficiency. The people act strange. The people act scared. Swaine can't let his city, his home be like this. He has to do something. He promised it wouldn’t be like this.<br/>
<br/>
“Who are you?”<br/>
<br/>
His name is Gascon. He's the prince and that doesn’t excuse his behavior, not to Esther. She hates him. He's just like Swaine but he's the prince so she can hardly call him out on it. She complains to listening ears and swaine sometimes hears but he seems to agree. He shouldn’t, he and Gascon are too similar, and to think she thinks any different about him is foolish. Gascon promises that he’s more important than her but, but if he's so important why has she never heard of him? She still heard things while she was brokenhearted. She would know if he existed.<br/>
<br/>
“Spoiled little brat.”<br/>
<br/>
He remembers this. Of course he does. It was a terrible night. It's the last thing he remembers clearly, before temptation bit his toes and gnawed at his bones until he had nothing left. He gets heartbroken when he leaves. Shadar is waiting around a corner, ready to ruin his life with grace and resentment. It hurts. He promised he’d come back. It took far too long for him to keep it.<br/>
<br/>
“Shadar got here first.”<br/>
<br/>
They got here too late. Shadar got to the emperor and. And he's Swaines dad. Esther doesn’t like it. She hates when people are sad, she spent too many nights broken hearted listening to her dad cry because he thinks shes gone, because he thinks she can't hear him, because he thinks she isnt there anymore, able to listen but only like a theatre show, like the people before her do not have real struggles, like they are made up of costumes and makeup and scripts. This all feels scripted, but it's real, Swaine loses his dad and she cant even try to comfort him because she knows it would be unwelcome, of course it would be unwelcome, they hate each other. She promised, didn't she?<br/>
<br/>
“I don’t want to talk about it.”<br/>
<br/>
He hopes she will push. She's pushy. He doesn't want to talk about it but by god he needs to, he needs to let the hurt go somewhere other than heavy in his chest, he needs to not be ok so he can learn to recognise the feeling. She doesn’t push. She wants to. He can see. He’s crying. He's sure she can see. She doesn’t push but he asks for the first watch, and drippy hates the first watch and Oliver didn’t even stay awake long enough to request it, like he always does. He’s crying and he can't breathe. Esther tries. He puts her hand on his arm and he breaks, because he has needed to be comforted about this for decades and this is the first time someone has given him affection in so long and it's only for him. Swaine promises himself that he will do better for these kids.<br/>
<br/>
“We are in this together.”<br/>
<br/>
Esther doesn’t always keep her promises. She tries her damndest, but she can’t hate swaine anymore. Not after what he’s done for them. Not after he went to the marshes, not after he carried an unconscious Oliver all the way back to Perdida, not after he took a heavy blow for the two of them. Not anymore. They talk and she's sorry and he doesn't need an apology. They're family now, they're kin, and he needs to be alone and she doesn't like it but she understands it. She talks to him. He talks to her. It's ok.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><div class="children module" id="children">
  <b class="heading">Works inspired by this one:</b>
  <ul>
    <li>
        <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/25539586">Podfic- I Promise.</a> by <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ever_After_AAA/pseuds/Ever_After_AAA">Ever_After_AAA</a>
    </li>
  </ul>
</div></div></div>
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